America the Beautiful: Introduction

Who is this Babylon, over whose demise the Heavens make so joyous a fuss (See Side Bar below: Armageddon and Brazil Rising, p. 97)? Great political, socio/economic institutions and military powers have fallen before, with little fanfare, beyond transient relief, so, why such delight here? Why the ecstasy? Why such euphoria? In the wake of our understanding of the previous chapter (Rev. 17), is this yet another metaphor for the woman who is that “great city”? If Rome or even all of Italy, including the Vatican City, were to disappear from the face of the earth today, what would be the real (net realizable) impact on the global economy (for, without question, Vatican City, home of the Great Whore—is the ‘cause’ behind the inscription ‘Babylon the Great’ scribbled across the forehead of the woman in chapter. 17)? Would she (the woman, who is Rome) be missed to the degree inferred here, by John the Revelator? Is her presence and participation in international affairs (backed by the weight of Italy’s roughly fifty-eight million souls), significantly indispensable (would she not have to be, for the ramifications of this prophecy to have meaningful implication on her behalf)? What does the scope of the influence of the Babylon the Great alluded to here indicate or suggest? Moreover, while being yet analogous of the Vatican City , could the God of all heaven and earth have conceived and patented this label so as to have, as well, a dual application ? Neither the pages of time nor any journal of history has ever known a nation as great as that of these United States of America. None has ever enjoyed such privilege, material wealth, prosperity, global reach and recognition as she has. Not even the people of the Book, the apple of His Eye—the well-spring from whence sprang the flow of the Lamb’s Blood which washes away all our sin—no, not even they, as a discrete people group or nation, can claim this distinction. These United States of America did not just happen by accident, nor is she the product of her own strength or resolve. Though it could be argued—and that rightly so—that she is the brainchild of the Holy One of the Jews and the Ancient Israelis—her existence owes nothing to any supposed goodness or righteousness surpassing that of any other. He who sits in the Heavens, watching and weighing hearts, would not have His hand-picked people forget; certainly, He will not have her forget that she is not the product of her own doing (i.e., those white evangelicals and fundamentalists who are quick to point to a fabled righteousness and ‘godliness’ of their ‘white’ forefathers as the basis and reason God chose to bless this nation are all liars!). This being the case, she is therefore, in some sense, an odd-ball amongst the nations, as, historically and presently, she does exhibit all the traits and characteristics which keep all the other nations, past and present, from experiencing the same level of prosperity—initially downplaying that which without doubt is key and bedrock to all her current successes . If not for the Hand of the Supreme Almighty One, Eternal and Self-existing, (bitten as that Holy Hand is by this current generation of Americans!), she as a nation would without doubt have long ago ceased to be. Absent the Hand of God, there is no rational reason why she should have arisen, late in the game of life, only to transcend nations stronger, and of longer standing than she. But, should this prove true, and in light of the chapter 18 profile, what then specifically could possibly make her Babylon the Great, and why would or could God possibly wish for and rejoice over her demise? That…is, the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question .